Custodianship of Wildlife on Private Land to Support Conservation – an Australian Model
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CSIRO PUBLISHING The Rangeland Journal, 2020, 42, 309–321 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ20039 Custodianship of wildlife on private land to support conservation – an Australian model George WilsonA,B,D, Melanie EdwardsB and Neil ByronC AAustralian National University, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. BAustralian Wildlife Services, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia. CUniversity of Canberra, Institute of Applied Ecology, ACT 2617, Australia. DCorresponding author. Email: [email protected] Abstract. A large proportion of the world’s extinctions have occurred in Australia, and threatened species lists continue to grow, notwithstanding government and philanthropic efforts. Most losses have been on private land, so relying on national parks and reserves is not enough to reverse trends and meet Australia’s responsibilities. This paper proposes a model that could increase abundance and distribution of Australia’s biodiversity, while providing financial incentives to private landholders to do so. It addresses the question, can landholder management of wildlife, and a form of private ownership, remedy shortfalls in government funding for biodiversity conservation and the resulting consequences of vast biodiversity losses? Landholders currently invest in propagating introduced livestock species, but they are prevented by current regulations from investing in a similar manner in threatened Australian native species. Market-based incentives could increase the distribution and abundance of species on private land and help protect the habitat of other biodiversity. The enabling changes would be contentious to some people but are consistent with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Sustainable Use policy. Different versions of wildlife privatisation have been successfully applied internationally: there is urgency for Australia to draw on these experiences and develop its own model to encourage and support wildlife on private freehold land. The model proposed in this paper focuses on: identifying locally overabundant populations or captive-bred populations as sources of supply; finding landholders and philanthropists who would like to have custodianship of species; enabling entrepreneurs to respond to demand; and bringing the two together where there is scope for a market-based sharing economy. Encouraging wildlife custodianship on private freehold land would be mutually beneficial, as it would not only result in an increase in biodiversity, but the economic value of wildlife could provide an income to landholders as well as enhancing Australia’s conservation system. Keywords: biodiversity, conservation, habitat restoration, land clearing, private land, sustainable harvesting, threatened species, wildlife custodianship. Received 13 May 2020, accepted 31 August 2020, published online 8 October 2020 Introduction Protected Areas, Ernesto Enkerlin Hoeflich, has stated that most Current policies and expenditure on conserving Australian protected areas on state-owned lands, while invaluable, are not threatened species are not working. Around 6–10% of the enough to achieve world conservation targets on their own world’s extinctions, including 35% of the world’s modern (Stolton et al. 2014). mammal extinctions, have occurred in Australia (Johnson 2006; Australia’s lack of improvement led concerned scientists to Woinarski et al. 2019). Threatened species lists continue to write to the Prime Minister in 2019 to inform him that Australia grow, notwithstanding government and philanthropic efforts. was amid an extinction crisis (Radford et al. 2019). Fires across Expenditure to address need is ,15% of what is needed to avoid eastern Australia in the summer of 2019/20 have made the extinctions and recover threatened species (Wintle et al. 2019). situation worse (Dickman 2020), and environmental degrada- Current strategies include the generation and maintenance of tion is likely to continue with current carbon emissions national parks and philanthropically funded reserves. Although (Sherwood et al. 2020). necessary and important for conservation, reliance on them is There is a need for innovative biodiversity conservation insufficient and species protected in the areas are continuing to paradigms and an urgency for Australia to trial new ways to be listed as threatened (Figgis et al. 2005; Hayward 2011). This encourage and support wildlife on private freehold land. Tenure is a global issue; the Chair of the World Commission of or custodianship of wildlife is a vital component of overseas Journal compilation Ó Australian Rangeland Society 2020 Open Access CC BY-NC www.publish.csiro.au/journals/trj 310 The Rangeland Journal G. Wilson et al. Private land Conservation National • Higher value, goals Reserve System more productive • Species decline • Limited funding & ecosystems omitted & habitat resources restricts • No incentives to destruction programs engage in biodiversity • Failure to meet • Many Reserves & wildlife targets targets operate in isolation Altruism alone contributing to Some success for limited private individual programs habitat & species conservation Fig. 1. Private lands are represented on the left, with Australia’s reserve system represented on the right. The two are not integrated, leading to failure of Australia’s conservation goals. There is only a small amount of land dedicated to the National Reserve System relative to the number of species and habitats which need preserving. Under current incentives the role of private land in assisting attainment of conservation goals is limited and based on altruism alone. Distribution and abundance of species increases Additional Revenue landholders increases from become Conservation Private land involved, leased National reserves goals • Introduction motivated wildlife to • System expands of wildlife by altruistic expand property rights and possibly Government financial Programs reward Private lands link fragmented habitats Fig. 2. When landholders have wildlife property rights there can be greater contribution by private landholders of nominated species on private lands (represented on the left). Financial benefits could motivate landholders to contribute to an effective expansion of the National Reserve Scheme (represented on the right) and attainment of larger conservation goals when compared with the current system (reproduced from Wilson et al. 2018). wildlife conservation projects. Fig. 1 shows the current discon- positive outcomes in species and habitat conservation (Child nect between the National Reserve System and the role of et al. 2012). The application of the concept to Australia could private lands in achieving national conservation goals. Enabling integrate private land more effectively with the objectives of wildlife custodianship and management of wildlife, previously Biodiversity Strategies and National Reserve Programs (Fig. 2). vested in governments, can lead to innovation, competition and Box 1 details wildlife ownership in Australia and defines Custodianship of native species The Rangeland Journal 311 Box 1. Definitions applying to private custodianship of wildlife to support conservation – an Australian model In Australia, the State Governments (i.e. the Crown) own wildlife; protected animals are the ‘‘property’’ of the State or Crown. Generally ‘‘ownership’’ changes when wildlife is taken under a license, permit or other authority issued or given under a regulation, and under a conservation plan. In this paper we suggest a form of ‘‘private custodianship of wildlife’’ could apply to living animals on private lands. Private custodianship of wildlife is defined as the duty of a person entrusted with the care of wildlife. Custodianship is distinguishable from other terms of proprietorship as it emphasises a duty of care, which is essential to biodiversity conservation. Other similar terms related to proprietorship that may be incorporated into custodianship policy include the following: Management: the control and organisation of wildlife and natural resources which influence wildlife. Ownership: Having responsibility for wildlife. Property: wildlife or an element of wildlife that belong to a landholder or the legal right to own and use wildlife. Right: allowance to do something to or with wildlife, legally or officially. Tenure: the conditions under which land or wildlife is owned. different proprietorship terms relating to wildlife custodianship. income, some of which could be fed into conservation. This Market-based incentives and private custodianship of wildlife paper follows discussion at a ‘World Cafe´’ table at the Austra- have been previously proposed as a potential remedy for short- lian Rangeland Society Conference in Canberra, September falls in government funding for conservation (Wilson et al. 2019 (Box 2), which discussed the following question, can 2017) but they have not been considered seriously as policy, and private landholder management of wildlife and a form of private we believe further examination and development is required. custodianship remedy shortfalls in government funding for The principle that property rights could also be applied to biodiversity conservation and the resulting consequences of sustainable harvesting and consumptive use of abundant and vast biodiversity losses? The discussion led us to reinvestigate widely distributed species such as kangaroos is discussed a model that could be adopted by Australia to provide economic elsewhere (Wilson et al. 2017). incentive to